Top 3 Tips for Healthy Hormones While Running.

Give your spring training block a ✨ glow up ✨

If you tend to come hot out the gates in to spring run training you’re definitely not alone!

With warmer temps and longer days it’s easy to get excited about spring and summer races, hikes and goals.

BUT… let’s take a hot second to slow your roll and put some helpful guideposts in place for your training so you can make it all the way to the fall injury free, with good energy and having smashed some personal bests.

When it comes to running, we often focus on building endurance, increasing speed, and achieving personal bests. However, for women, taking a more holistic approach is key—especially when considering the impact of training on our hormones. Hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle can affect energy levels, recovery, and even overall performance. Understanding how to protect your hormones while increasing your training is key to staying balanced, injury-free, and performing at your best.

Here are three important tips to protect your hormones while maximizing your running potential:

1. Fuel All Workouts (Especially Morning Runs)

Hormonal balance is significantly influenced by nutrition, particularly around workouts. For women, failing to properly fuel your body before and after runs, especially in the morning, can disrupt hormone levels.

Early morning runs, in particular, may deplete your glycogen stores, which in turn can lead to higher cortisol levels (the stress hormone). This chronic elevation of cortisol can negatively affect female reproductive hormones and lead to issues like irregular periods, low energy, digestive issues and chronic colds and flus.

To prevent this, make sure to consume a balanced meal or snack before your workout—aim for a combination of healthy carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This not only provides you with sustainable energy but also supports the endocrine system. After your workout, prioritize recovery with a hearty post-run meal to replenish glycogen stores, rebuild muscle, and keep steady hormone production.. The more consistent you are about fueling properly, the more likely you’ll be able to maintain healthy hormone levels and stay on track with your training.

2. Vary Speed and Intensity

One of the most common mistakes in training is sticking to the same pace or intensity for every run. While consistency is important, varying the speed and intensity of your workouts helps to minimize the risk of overtraining and optimize performance gains.

Incorporating a mix of easy-paced runs, intervals, and higher intensity sprints allows your body to improve both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. The variety also helps your body respond more efficiently to different intensities of running, adapts the neuromuscular system to improve baseline speed and helps buffer inflammation which can support overall health and hormone regulation. .

3. Strengthen Accessory Muscles (Calves, Glutes, Core)

Running places a lot of stress on the major muscle groups—quads, hamstrings, and calves—but neglecting accessory muscles like the glutes, core, and calves can lead to imbalances and injuries and can derail our training plans.

Building strength in accessory muscles helps not only improve your running mechanics but also prevents injury, reduces inflammation, and improves recovery time.

Be sure to include strength exercises for your calves, glutes, and core in your training regimen. My go-to’s are rear elevated lunges, squats, sidelying leg lifts and planks.

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Final Thoughts: Training with Hormonal Health in Mind

We’re here for a good time, but we also want to be here for a long time. If you’re anything like me, running is more than just a sport for you and you want to be able to do it for the next 10, 15, 20 yrs if possible.

Taking time to thoughtfully create training plans, prioritize strength and nutrition and give ourselves sufficient rest and recovery will not only support us in performing our best now, but will protect our hormones, energy levels, and physical bodies for years to come.

Friendly reminder that if you want more support with this, I’m always here to chat.

Happy Running!